Author Results for Reed Albergotti

Last summer, Ditto.com, a virtual try-on service for eyeglasses, started an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Ditto wasn’t trying to fund the company. Instead, it offered T-shirts in exchange for $30 donations to its defense in a patent suit.

Now, a Silicon Valley company is offering to protect Ditto and other startups from patent suits, through insurance. Read More »

Update 4:19 pm:Paul Konigsberg, a long-time former accountant to Bernard Madoff, was indicted Thursday for allegedly keeping false books that helped the convicted Ponzi-scheme operator cover up the fraud for decades. Mr. Konigsberg’s attorney, Reed Brodsky, said his client “is an innocent victim of Bernie Madoff. He looks forward to clearing his good name at trial.” Full story here.

9:39 am: Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested accountant Paul Konigsberg in relation to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, a person close to the probe said.

It is unclear what, if any, charges federal prosecutors might bring against Mr. Konigsberg, who is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan federal court Thursday. Mr. Konigsberg hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.

According to a person briefed on the investigation, prosecutors believe they have less than a year to bring cases against people they suspect of having played a role in the Ponzi scheme, given the five-year statute of limitations on securities-fraud cases. . . . . Read More »

Back in April, we wrote about a quirky statute that was increasingly being used in government fraud cases. It’s generally referred to as the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act.

In a nutshell, it says that there is no statute of limitation for any fraud against the government during wartime.

Courts have found that the definition of “war” is so broad that there are few significant stretches of time in which our nation has not been “at war.” Judges have also loosely defined fraud against the government as anything from tax evasion to the abuse of government guarantees in farm futures.

On Monday night, the wartime suspension law was invoked in yet another scenario: Doping to win the Tour de France.

How does cheating in a French bike race constitute fraud against Uncle Sam?. . . . . Read More »

If a group of influential prosecutors, defense attorneys and law professors in New York have their way, the theft of computerized trading code on Wall Street could carry significantly higher prison time.

Under proposed changes, recommended Tuesday by New York’s White Collar Crime Task Force, the “unlawful duplication of computer-related material” would essentially be treated like any other type of larceny, with potentially serious prison time, depending on the value of the stolen code. Read the full story here.

The 112-page report released Tuesday offers several hypothetical examples illustrating what it says are examples of how New York’s white-collar criminal statutes have fallen behind changes in technology and criminal behavior. Read More »

To recap, Mr. Bergin represented himself in his 2011 trial, in which he was accused of orchestrating the murder of a federal witness who planned to testify against one of his clients. That case ended in a hung jury. . . . . Read More »

Rex Maralit, holding an M4-style weapon, as pictured in a government exhibit

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn recently busted three brothers – including two law enforcement officials – for allegedly selling high-powered machine guns to buyers in the Philippines, according to a criminal complaint unsealed earlier this month.

But a search of one of their apartments has led investigators to believe there might be more to the gun sales. They believe the sales might have been part of a state-sponsored scheme, according to the court documents unsealed September 6th and a person briefed on the matter.

The bust is the latest in a string of cases headed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York that focus on the illegal . . . Read More »

“The Investor bears the burden of showing that “red flags” were not ignored when they invested their money in what is later realized as a Ponzi Scheme,” wrote United States District Judge Richard Lazzara in the 13-page ruling.

Judge Lazzara blocked a payout to one investor who lost money in Arthur Nadel’s hedge fund. In early 2009, Mr. Nadel’s Ponzi scheme collapsed, leading to about $350 million in losses. He was indicted for securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud before dying in the spring of last year.

The firm, Genium AI Fund Series 1 Ltd, said it lost $1.195 million when the Ponzi scheme collapsed. Genium sold the claim to a . . .Read More »

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

Must Reads

First Amendment advocates and major media companies are urging a federal appeals court to throw out a defamation judgment against "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle that entitled former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to more than $1 million of the royalties from the book.

A federal jury in Los Angeles on Tuesday ordered singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to pay about $7.4 million to the family of Marvin Gaye, after finding the duo’s 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines” copied parts of Mr. Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up.”